Here is a selection of images from my work over the last year:
Gesture work for ‘Said The Assassination’
As Janet Grey in ‘Said The Assassination’- by Than Hussein Clark, Silencio, Paris.
As Voltaire in ‘Emilie’ by Lauren Gunderson at RVP
‘Paradise Street’ by Clive Barker.
Well, well. Since last I posted about M.I.T., I have been involved in some fantastic projects: I played Jude, in Clive Barker’s ‘Paradise Street’, (US Premier) directed by Stuart Bousel in December. Then I was Voltaire in Lauren Gunderson’s ‘Émilie du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight’ directed by Patricia Miller. Next was a devised play ‘Said The Assasinations’ a work in response to the refugee crisis by Than Hussein Clark, performed in David Lynch’s Silencio in Paris. Then I returned to the Bay Area and straight into ‘Sordid Lives’ by Del Shores, directed by Dennis Lickteig at NCTC. (Running through June 24th).
‘Theater or Cruelty (Cometh, Cometh, Cometh)’ (2016) presents a modular stage that is, in part, imagined to be the workers’ cantina at a fictional factory that produces the tragedy machine.The exhibition also serves as the premiere of This Is It or Dawn at Bar Bazuhka (2016), the group’s most recent theatrical production, an adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s play The Iceman Cometh (1939), transposing the story from New York’s Greenwich Village to a gay nightclub on the Greek Island of Skiathos.’-Villa Design Group
My most recent project was another brand new work by Than Hussein Clark and Villa Design Group. We performed at the List Centre for Visual Arts at MIT in Boston. This marked Villa Design Group’s first institutional show in the US. With a cast of eight actors from across the globe, we spent two weeks devising and rehearsing in New Hampshire. The resulting performance was a wild and rich play with influences from Eugene O’Neill’s ‘The Iceman Cometh‘ and Czech writer Karel Čapek’s 1920’s Sci-Fi play ‘R.U.R.’ We also performed four original songs, karaoke-style in the manner of a Greek Chorus. Needless to say it was a challenging, fantastic experience.
“If a machine could write dramas, what would they be? This is the idea that London-based artist collective Villa Design Group explores with The Tragedy Machine, their waggish, new exhibition at the MIT List Visual Arts Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Spawned from a sci-fi worthy premise, the exhibition-meets-theatrical production springs out of the group’s reaction to their stridently academic venue”- Vice.com The Creators Project
Stay tuned for information on my next project ‘Paradise Street’. Directed by Stuart Bousel, this US premier by horror writer Clive Barker promises to be worth attending.
“Remember, ladies: Bravery is rewarded. Principle – Yes. Like John of Cantacuzenus, reluctant emperor of Byzantium charged with the protection of the regent – keep firm. It’s always aching. Steer the course. Steer the course well and you will arrive back in Alexandria still stitched together. You see sir, Miss Lana she is still so struck with grief, well, she imagines her twin is still here with her. Yes, A grief stricken slip of the tongue sir. I’m sorry sir, but miss Laura, she has died. There was an accident on the Nile”.- Constance (Played by Cat Luedtke) ‘The Erotic Review Sinai’
I have just returned from Prague, Czech Republic, where I had the thrill to collaborate and perform in a new play by Than Hussein Clark. It was part of a presentation of new works: ‘Debts-The Erotic Review Sinai’ that the London and Hamburg based artist produced over the last two months during the artists production residency in the frame of A.I.R. FUTURA.
We rehearsed in an old auto factory that is now Karlin Studios, Krizikova. Our performance took place in the fabulous Studio Hrdinu, in The National Gallery.
Over the seven week rehearsal period, we developed a physical and vocal system of language which complimented the themes of the work. It was the most rigorous and glorious experience.
‘As Part of his exhibition Debts (Erotic Review Sinai) at Futura Contemporary Art Centre Prague, Than Hussein Clark will also premier a new three act dramatic work at Studio Hrdinů on October 15th at 7pm. Drawing on the Marionette plays of Maurice Maetlink, the chamber plays of August Strindberg, and the History of the Opera of the Fifth of May, Clark’s newest theatrical production tells the story of an incestuous Governess and her charge, whose grand tour of Egypt must be tragically cut short. They return home to he premier of an opera, after which only one will return to the Nile.
Starring: Ruth Connick
Catherine Luedtke
Valerie McCann
Josef Mohamed
With the Voice of Laura Schuller
English with Czech Subtitles
The following images represent a sliver of the work.
‘The Erotic Review Sinai’ Written and Directed by Than Hussein Clark. Performed at Studio Hrdinu, The National Gallery, Prague. October 2015.
